Tangled Thicket Farm received Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) certification for our vegetables, herbs, and fruits in November 2021.
CNG is an alternative form of organic certification that uses a peer review process rather than governmental review. Aside from the opportunity to work closely with other farms, we feel CNG fits well with our farm philosophies:
→ We do not use human-made pesticides, and we also reduce our use of organic pesticides such as neem oil and copper spray by practicing integrated pest management (IPM). IPM is a practice that stresses working with the system, rather than against it. It begins at the planning level, by placing plants in suitable conditions for full vigor, and continues through hand-management (weeding by hand, removing infected plants, or removing pests) before we use organic pesticides.
→ We work with organic, open-pollinated seeds and plants.
→ We seek to create a symbiotic relationship with the land we are on, rather than a parasitic one. This involves continued work to restore and maintain a healthy ecosystem. For our farm, this especially involves removing invasive plant species (blackberries, poison hemlock, spurge laurel, thistle, and reed canarygrass), maintaining a swale planted with native trees and bushes, and slowly transitioning our overgrown Hedgewood Forest into natural orchards, native plant areas, silvopasture, and food forests.
→ We will seek to enrich and support a living soil by creating and adding compost, minimizing tilling, and over time, reducing our need for organic fertilizers. These practices also help combat global climate change!
The Seeds We Use…
… are vitally important to us, as they hold the key to all the nutrients, taste, and vigor of the food we pass on to you. A healthy seed creates a healthy fruit creates a healthy addition to your diet and I’m happy to say, a healthier world. We believe strongly in supporting:
Open-Pollinated Seeds. These are seeds that have resulted from the natural pollination of the parent plant, and are the alternative to use if you wish to stay GMO-free. This is the type of seed we should select if we want seeds to belong to everyone, and not just the company that has gained control of them.
Organic Seeds. Organic seeds are ones produced and saved without use of pesticides or inorganic chemicals. No residues to worry about!
Heirloom Seeds. Although we do also grow non-heirloom varieties, we hope to keep the incredible variety of heirlooms available for the world to enjoy. Heirloom varieties, with their rich, nuanced tastes and sheer diversity, tend to disappear in our culture as more easily mass-produced varieties take their place. And often the taste suffers!
Local Seeds. Locally grown seeds are adapted to this region’s climate, and are more likely to thrive. Especially as we are trying to keep the three above principles in place, local seeds can help us grow more effectively and holistically, while supporting the local growers who produce and distribute these seeds.
For us, this farm is a labor of love – a passion and way to give back to a world that has provided us with so much. We regularly return to this core value as we meet setbacks and struggle with the challenges this lifestyle presents. As we talk with each other and our friends and customers, we often return to several key philosophies:
→ We see ourselves as lifelong learners. Both of us are new to farming, and not only have we learned so much over the past few years, we acknowledge that we will always have so much to learn. This is a humbling experience, and we seek to open ourselves to being beginners in this way – to embrace it even, as learning is a way to continuously enrich our lives.
→ We are committed to dismantling systems of inequity and overturning ideologies that rely on oppression. This journey begins inside as we work to understand and erode values and ways of being that have been instilled in us by our position of privilege, so that we do not inadvertently perpetuate values we do not support. We want to work with our community members in ways that promote equitable division of resources and fair and diverse practices on the farm. We hope to expand our work in this area as our farm grows and can offer more opportunities and resources to the various diverse communities around us.
→ We believe in having fun and experiencing joy! We hope those around us come to trust us as a place to find adventure, friendship, and connection to plants, animals, and the earth.